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Local Gun Ban Imminent: Your Immediate Action is Needed!

Beleaguered gun owners in tiny West Chester, Iowa, located in central Washington County, urgently need your help today!In just two days, the city council will likely be voting to strip gun owners of their right of self-defense.

What this means is that gun owners in this town will be left defenseless at the city baseball field, the volleyball court, the basketball courts, the city playground, and any other property that the city “owns” in West Chester.

Of course, the City of West Chester does not own ANY property as it is law abiding taxpayers who pay to build and maintain these properties in the first place.

And of course, as many gun owners know, any attempt to regulate gun rights on a city and county level here in Iowa is in direct violation of Iowa code section 724.28.

But that has not stopped West Chester Mayor Chad Peiffer who has been on a relentless campaign since January of this year to strip all gun owners of their right of self-defense in “his town.”

After our recent story on the proposed Nevada gun ban, gun owners in this tiny town reached out to us, hoping that you and I could rise to the occasion once again in stopping another gun ban from taking effect.

After receiving calls from multiple gun owners in this community, IGO staff traveled to West Chester recently to talk with gun owners as well as Mayor Peiffer about this proposal.

While we’re used to small town governmental bodies trying to be evasive, we have never experienced such deflection and double speak as we did in speaking to Mayor Chad Peiffer.

Mayor Peiffer refused to:

*** Give us a copy of the proposed ordinance to review;

*** Tell us who the city attorney was (where he kept directing us to get more information;)

*** Tell us why the ordinance came about in the first place;

*** Tell us when he intends to hold the next city council meeting to deal with this issue!

In fact, if anything, Mayor Peiffer pretended that this proposal was mostly just an idea, saying it was one that would probably never be acted on.

Right before he jumped in his vehicle, leaving us standing in the middle of the street, Mayor Peiffer did blame the whole situation on some “troublesome gun owners” who were causing trouble in “his town.”

When we asked him who these “troublesome gun owners” were, he pointed us to the home of Dave and Judy McAartor. When we spoke with Dave and Judy McArtor, an entirely different story began to emerge.

(Proud gun owners Dave and Judy McArtor, of West Chester, have been trying to stop a gun ban in their town for most of 2014. They need your help to stop this!)

You see, the McArtor’s and other gun owners in this town have been engaged in a fight for the Second Amendment since January of this year, when this gun ban was first proposed before the city council.

They have asked Mayor Peiffer for a copy of this proposal at virtually every monthly city council meeting since January, but he consistently refused to give them a copy of the proposed ordinance. If anything, Mayor Peiffer and the council members in this town seem determined to wait out gun owners in West Chester.

Thanks to the McArtor’s help, we were able to obtain city council minutes from every city council meeting since January.

Far from being merely an idea, as Mayor Peiffer suggested, this proposal has been on the agenda in West Chester for the January, February, April, July, August, September, October, and November meetings!

With each meeting, the proposal gets tweaked, altered and sent back for further review as the council prepares to vote on this ban.

Insiders tell us that often it seems as though the council keeps tabling the proposal if gun owners are present, waiting for a time when they can pass this without the protests of local citizens. And that vote may very well take place THIS Saturday!

Of course, we can’t be sure. We continually asked Mayor Peiffer if the council plans to vote on this ordinance in December and refused to tell us!

More than that, the agenda for monthly meetings in West Chester often isn’t released until just before the actual meeting takes place – leaving gun owners in West Chester unable to organize a resistance – and now they need your help.

With your calls and emails, Iowa Gun Owners has successfully stopped gun bans, just this year alone, in George, Dubuque, Tama, Burlington, and Nevada!

Let’s add West Chester to this list! Remember, gun grabbers operate on momentum – if they pass a gun ban here, it won’t be long until they are trying this in your town.

So regardless of where you live in Iowa, it’s VITAL that you take a moment to make some calls and send some emails!

So please contact the Mayor and council members of West Chester, using the information below:

If you can’t reach anyone at the above numbers, feel free to leave a message with the West Chester City Clerk Sue Janneck by calling 319-698-7256 or by emailing [email protected] Tell them that their attempts to leave you vulnerable to violent criminal attack smacks of an elitism that you wholeheartedly reject!

Tell them that their attempts to hide their efforts from gun owners in their community is not the way that Iowans conduct business.

Tell them that you will encourage everyone you know to spend any money they can in towns other than West Chester, if they persist in trying to take away your right of self-defense.

In addition, long-time IGO members will recall the problems we’ve had with the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association (ISSDA) and their attempts to block and restrict pro-gun legislation in the Capitol going back for years.

The former chair of the ISSDA, and now one of the leading board members, is Washington County Sherriff Jerry Dunbar.

Mayor Chad Peiffer has asked Sherriff Dunbar to give an opinion on the legality of the proposed ordinance and since he’s the head law enforcement officer in the community, Sheriff Dunbar’s word carries a lot of influence.

We’ve reached out to Sheriff Dunbar multiple times to ask where he stands on this proposal, especially in light of Iowa code section 724.28, but he’s not returning any of our calls.

So please take a moment to contact Sherriff Jerry Dunbar at 319-653-2107 and ask him to stand up for the law-abiding citizens of tiny West Chester, for Iowa code 724.28, and for the 2nd Amendment rights of the citizens of Washington County. Whatever you do, please make your calls and send your emails today as the city council is set to meet on Saturday!

After you call, be sure to send this email to all of your pro-gun friends.

For Freedom,

Aaron Dorr Executive Director

P.S. Just like other Iowa towns have tried to do this year, the West Chester City Council will likely be voting in just two days to ban you from your right of self-defense on all “city-owned” property.

This means that you would be left defenseless on the city baseball field, the volleyball court, the basketball courts, the city park, and any other property that the city “owns” in Westchester. But more than that, the Mayor of Westchester, Chad Peiffer, is REFUSING to let gun owners in that community even read a copy of the proposed ordinance before it gets voted on!

This type of “Boss-Hogg” mentality smacks of such elitism that we can hardly comprehend it. That’s why it’s urgent you contact the mayor and city council members today, before Saturday’s likely vote, and DEMAND they vote this proposal down!

The contact information is above. Please make your calls today – and send this email to every pro-gun Iowan you know!

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